Housing prices have
greatly appreciated year-over-year and have begun to forcibly
recover – March 2013’s median home price is $505,000, an increase
of $28,000 over February 2013 and an $85,000 increase over February
2012. This is the highest median home price seen since April 2008.

Average apartment rents have spiked with housing price growth, nearing $100 more
on average than the previous year. February 2013 saw an average
rent of $1,630, a $39 decrease from the previous month but trending
upward, but March 2013 brought the average rent back to $1,651,
a $21 increase over the previous month.

The number of building permits in Orange County spiked drastically in April 2011,
Before regressing back to average 2010 numbers in July 2011. 2012
was overall a healthier period for housing permits, with relatively
sustained growth throughout the year and currently carrying momentum
into February 2013.

This indicator shows the average apartment rent for major Orange County
cities and for the county average as a whole. The county average as a whole
is not the average of the seven cities shown in this chart but for all the
cities in Orange County.

This indicator measures the number of homes that have foreclosed each month
by county. Because of different data accumulation methods, this indicator
is not directly comparable to the “Total Number of Homes in Some Stage of
Foreclosure” indicator.